The Guessing Game
by EasySilverDoesIt
Summary: Hermione attends the first 'Animagus Ball' and while she tries to avoid all the romance of everyone else at the party, love seems creep up her blindside and wallop her across the face without her even realizing it...  slight AU, Hermione/Draco


The Guessing Game:

Characters: Hermione, a mysterious man, Ginny, Harry, and others at a Animagus Masquerade ball.

Rated: K+ for safety

Body Count: Hermione's ego, a tablecloth, and an entire table setting, complete with plates, glasses, knives and forks.

Setting: Great-hall of Hogwarts during July at an animagus masquerade ball, where every comes in their animagus form rather than dresses and robes.

_ Wonderful... _Thought a very irritated Hermione, who, on the orders of one Ginny Potter, had been forced to attended a Magical Masquerade ball. The only difference between the regular Masquerade balls and this one was that instead of masks, everyone who attended had to be in their animagus form.

The party had been planned months in advance, was held in the great-hall of Hogwarts during the long, hot month of July and anyone who had an animagus form could decorations were wonderful, there were charms placed so that everyone could understand and talk to one another and it was made so that any type of animal could be present, even those aquatic ones such as fish, sharks and dolphins. (Who floated around in large bubbles of water.)

Hermione did not _really_ want to be there. She would much rather be curled up in her warm flat with a book by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, but because of Ginny and her stubborn insistence that her friend attend, Hermione was stuck with no way out.

The Golden Girl herself had been one of the first to arrive of course, as a dark ginger and brown furred fox, with long tufts of untamable tail fur, accompanied by a large, dark brown stag (Harry.) and a slightly smaller ginger spotted doe (Ginny.) whom Hermione suspected was a Fallow deer, though she wasn't sure.

Ginny and Harry had been married nearly a year now, as had Ron and Lavender, leaving Hermione as the only member of the Golden Trio who had yet to officially date someone more than a month, much less be married.

Still annoyed that Ginny had dragged her there, Hermione sat down on one of the tables near the far side of the great-hall, curled her bushy tail around her small paws and looked out at the group of varied animals that was steadily growing bigger.

Hermione had had no idea there were so many animaguses, and decided that in the absence of having anything else to do, she would entertain herself by guessing which animal was already knew who Harry and Ginny were, and she spotted Ron easily because she had been the one to train him in becoming an animagus, (He was the small ginger terrier excitedly yipping at a small brown and black miniature poodle.) but most of the others were not as easy.

The poodle near Ron was probably Lavender, though how the daft girl had managed to become an animagus Hermione didn't know. Though, to Lavender's credit, she was actually smarter than she let on, and she was much nicer to be around now that they were out of school and away from all the peer-pressure.

Hermione spotted two large stately-looking dogs in the opposite corner of the room talking to a crow, one dog long haired with light, platinum blonde fur and the other wavy honey blonde. If their appearances didn't give them away, then the arrogant and smug way they were both sitting certainly did. Was it even possible to _sit _arrogantly? Apparently so.

_ The Malfoy's..._

Getting her mind away from the negativity that came from thinking about the pureblood family, she went back to work, and almost immediately spotted a rabbit twice as big as she was with... antlers?

_ I thought Jackalope's were made up by muggles..._

Hermione had never seen one, though she did remember coming across something about horned rabbits in her reading once. In any case, the large rabbit was now excitedly having a conversation with another, smaller hare without horns, and Hermione recognized the hare to be almost an exact copy of the patronus Luna Lovegood could conjure. _The Jackalope must be her father. It fits him, I suppose..._

Watching the entrance to the hall, she saw two identical colorful parakeets fly side-by-side over the head of the other animaguses and land on one of the low hanging rafters. _Parvati and Padma, I wager._

The ball hadn't even officially started yet and by the time it had, Hermione had figured out who most of the guests were and if she didn't know, she guessed.

A large king fisher perched above her on the rafters was probably Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Two weasels snickering at nothing in particular: Fred and George.

Bright, florescence colored and black striped tiger that kept changing colours: Nymphadora Tonks.

Another larger ginger weasel accompanied by a ginger prairie dog who were both scolding the smaller twin weasels after something on the refreshments table exploded in great colourful sparks: Mr. And Mrs. Weasely.

A small, fat and fluffy little brown dog with a pink bow on it's head who was talking animatedly with a grey wolf and shooting horrible scowls across the room at McGonagal's tabby cat form: Umbridge.

The small black pug dog with her nose in the air near a dark brown panther was beyond a doubt Pansy Parkinson. The panther reminded Hermione of the Italian Slytherin named Blaise.

A while past and eventually the silver tabby seated on the main table got up announced to everyone that how wonderful it was that everyone could make it and that the ball had officially started, but the Golden Girl wasn't really interested: She was having to hard of a time not falling asleep on her paws..

Everyone went back to talking or eating, except Hermione, who remained where she was with closed eyes, bored half to death until a voice next to her said, _"Aren't you going to enjoy the festivities?", _causing her to jump, literally, considering that she was a fox.

Unfortunately, because she had been seated near the edge of the table, she landed ungracefully halfway off the the table with her back legs dangling in midair as she scrambled for purchase on the tablecloth. There was a loud tearing sound of claws in fabric, then a hissing shriek as Hermione, the tablecloth and everything on it slide off the table and onto the floor with a loud crash.

Everyone turned to the source of the noise, seeing a small brown fox struggling to free itself from the tablecloth, covered in food and shattered glass and surrounded by cutlery and plates with another concerned fox peeking over the table with a strange expression on it's face. To say that it was a odd sight would have been understatement.

It was dead silent, and when the brown fox managed to free itself it did not look happy in anyway shape or form.

_ Oh no, oh no, oh no... _Was the first coherent thought that raced through Hermione's mind when she saw everyone staring and immediately wished she was still tangled in the tablecloth, unable to see everyone else's faces.

A small terrier started forward -probably to help Hermione- but was beaten by the other fox, who sprang down from the bench, grabbed Hermione's scruff in it's teeth and dragged her under the table, away from the eyes of the others.

_ "Who on earth do you think you are!" _Hermione hissed and struggled, although it was in vain. The other fox was at least twice as strong as she.

_ "Hold still, for Merlin's sake, I'm helping you!" _The other fox hissed back, his voice muffled by her fur.

Hermione let herself go limp until the other fox released her and let her scramble to her feet. As soon as she had her paws under her, she turned around to look at the person who had saved her from the accusing eyes.

The other fox was a tad bit larger than she was, had pearly white, almost iridescent fur that covered his muscular body and judging by his voice, was a male.

_ "Who are you?" _Hermione wondered, looking straight into his steely eyes.

_ "It wouldn't be much of a Masquerade if I told you, wouldn't? Takes the fun out of it, so I don't think i want to know who you are either." _The white fox chuckled, curling his tail around his paws. _"You might want to clean yourself up, you have what appears to be a piece of chicken stuck to your back."_

Almost at once Hermione's face reddened, and she was glad that she had fur, so that the other fox couldn't see her embarrassment as she ducked her head and shook her pelt.

_ "If you aren't going to give me your name, then at least tell me what year you graduated and maybe a name that can call you." _hermione said as she licked her pelt clean.

_ "I think I can agree to that. I graduated four years ago. If you want you can call me... Romanee."_

_ "Alright, Romanee__, call me.. Merle. You were in the same year as I was. Interesting. I wonder if I know you."_

The white fox did what was the equivalent of a shrug. _"Well, Merle, it is possible, I knew most people in our year. Nice nickname, by the way. Blackbird in French. _

Hermione laughed. _"I was usually in the library studying. Most of the people I knew were in my house. And thank you, I like yours as well. A very famous French wine, if I remember correctly."_

_ "Ravenclaw?"_

_ "No, Griffindor. Apparently the hat thought I should go into Ravenclaw, but for some reason it decided to put me with those of brave hearts."_

_ "And you don't think you have a brave heart?"_

_ "No, I was terrified of doing many things."_

_ "That doesn't mean anything. Griffindors aren't suppose to be fearless, and you have to be afraid. If you aren't afraid then you can't be brave because being brave is about overcoming your fears."_

Hermione nodded again, more slowly as she considered his words. _"I suppose so. You spoke like a true Griffindor."_

To her surprise, the white fox's lip curled and he snorted. _"Absolutely not. I'm a Slytherin, through and through." _

_ "Really? I would have-" _Suddenly the loud cat voice of McGonagal cut her off, as she announced that the feast was about to start. Both Hermione and the white fox slowly crept out from under the table and found a place to sit next to each other. Food was served to each person, a different dish for each type of animal and Hermione found that whatever meat was on her plate was delicious. (She would later find out that it had been a mixture of rabbit and mice meat, which had made her feel rather ill when she realized.)

The two foxes had a few long conversations, first about the latest Potions Weekly magazines main article, then about which Minister of Magic candidate would best serve the wizarding world, (Lucius Malfoy, Estimar Gratespin or Spencer Mulcher. Both of them agreed that Lucius was best, despite his past, because the other two were complete morons.) and finally an argument about what type of chocolate was best. (Hermione thought that the muggle chocolate Aero was best, _"The bubbles melt in your mouth!" _while Grey stubbornly believed Honeydukes was better. _"It has more chocolaty goodness than any muggle chocolate!"_)

Hermione was actually enjoying herself by the time dinner was over, and when it came time to 'remove the masks' Hermione was rather excited to see if she knew the person.

The couples around her began to transform back to their human state, everyone wearing fine dress robes and gowns, and Hermione was happy to see that most of her guess about the identities of the people had been right.

The king fisher was indeed Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Jackalope and the hare were Luna and her father, the parakeets were Padma and Parvati, the poodle became Lavender, the two stately looking dogs were the Malfoy's while the crow they had been siting by was Professor Snape, the ugly dog with the bow was Umbridge, the tiger was Tonks and many other animals became people she didn't know.

Hermione, still a fox, looked pleased, then startled as 'Romanee' said, _"Maybe we should transform back."_

She nodded, then concentrated on her human form and felt herself shift, everything becoming smaller as she completed the change back to human. Then she turned around to find that 'Romanee' was gone and in his place, was one well-dressed Draco Malfoy smirking at her.

Her first instinct was confusion, then panic. If Draco Malfoy had just tricked her into this, she would never hear the end of it.

But when Draco rolled his eyes at her surprised look, then bowed, she knew that they were the same person.

"May I have the honor of the first dance, Merle?"

She hesitated, then took his earlier words about bravery to heart, and smiled. "Of course, Romanee."

And with that, they danced away into the night, fell in _luve_, dated, got married and lived happily ever after. Or something to that effect.

Draco and Hermione dated in secret for a while, but when they decided to get married, they were supported by most of their friends and family, even Ron eventually, though he initially thought it was a joke.

Hermione's parents were overjoyed, especially her mother, while Draco's father was less than pleased. The only reason he agreed to the wedding was Draco telling him that he really didn't give a damn what Lucius thought, Hermione was to be his wife. The final nail in that proverbial coffin was Narcissa telling Lucius over family tea that, 'Your son can marry who he likes, quite acting like the bloody Dark Lord, build a bridge and get over it.' promptly putting an end to Lucius' feeble arguments as he spluttered into his tea.

Narcissa and Hermione's mother became close friends, and Lucius eventually warmed up to Hermione a bit. (It probably helped that he became the new Minister of Magic later that year and wasn't so much of a muggle hater, though he still couldn't quite contain himself from grimacing.)

Draco and Hermione had two children, a girl named Aquila and a boy named Altair, who inherited their fathers silver eyes and blonde hair and their mothers friendliness and wits.

Aquila and Altair both became very successful; Aquila became the youngest Minister of Magic when she was 29, and Altair an top-notch potions master who invented cures for dozens of diseases. (Including one for those who were werewolves.)

It is said that every single Malfoy descendent from then on were animaguses. It is also said that if you go into the woods surrounding Malfoy Manor in the evening, you may catch a glimpse of a pair of foxes watching the sunset, one ginger and brown and the others a iridescent silver...

But it's probably just a rumor.

A/N: I hope you liked it! If you'd like to read more stories, like what the twins did that made Mr. and Mrs. Weasely mad, then I have then posted on my profile.


End file.
